71. Books that Saved My Life, Michael McGirr, 2018, 292 pp
Michael McGirr is an Australian writer:
"I’ve published extensively in the areas of philosophy, literature, spirituality and ethics. I’ve written hundreds of articles, essays and stories, which have been published in countless books, journals and newspapers, including the New York Times and The Tablet, both in Australia and overseas. I’m a leader in the creative exploration and expression of a faith that does justice. I have worked in the area of formation with the boards and staff of many schools and other organisations." - from his website.
I loved reading this book - on books by Jeanette Winterson, G.K. Chesterton, George Eliot, John Donne, Chaucer, and many more.
72. Question 7, Richard Flanagan, 2023
A marvellous book
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/02/question-7-by-richard-flanagan-book-review
73. The Beauty of Everyday Things, Soetsu Yanagi, 2017
The first in this collection of essays was written in 1933, in Japanese. 'A letter to my Korean friends' - 1920.
Yanagi Sōetsu, also known as Yanagi Muneyoshi, was a Japanese art critic, philosopher, and founder of the mingei movement in Japan in the late 1920s and 1930s.
74. Life's Edge - The Search for What It Means to Be Alive, Carl Zimmer, 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zimmer
A fascinating book from a popular science writer, Carl Zimmer (1966-). In other books, Zimmer has countered misinformation about vaccines and climate change without rancour, calmly and expertly.
75. Quiet Street - On American Privilege, Nick O'Donell (2023)
A small, telling book on the author's own upbringing in privileged circles in the New York, with insights into the ways that, through his own experience, the very wealthy maintain inequity and their place in society.
76. The Book of Unconformities, Hugh Raffles (2020)
An extraordinary book by USA anthropologist and writer, Hugh Raffles. It is grounded in the stories of stones: Neolithic stone circles, Icelandic lava, and a huge meteorite in Greenland, to mention a few.
77. Putin - his life and times, Philip Short (2022), 854pp.
Monumental. Covers all aspects of Putin's family history, birth, boyhood, schooling and political career (1952-).
There's no mention of the (urban myth?) that Putin was in New Zealand for the KGB when the Mikhail Lermontov sank in 1986.
78. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman, (2020).
An analysis of the emergency of the 'self' and identity in the modern world, from a Christian perspectivea .
79. A History of the Queen's Redoubt & the Invasion of the Waikato, Ian Barton and Neville Ritchie (2021)
Fascinating and detailed history of the major redoubt on the Great South Road at Pokeno.
80. The Age of Fitness, Jurgen Martschukat, (2021)
Puts the era of fitness since the 1980's in a cultural, political and social context.